“You need to stop thinking of me as the boy you abandoned, and remember I’m the monster the Hierarchs feared.” GO OFF KING!!!!
Okay, but seriously–
First of all, re-read Witch King before you read Queen Demon. Yes, even if you think you don’t need to. It will help a lot. (Me, 45 pages in, suddenly remembering that what Kai knows as “horse” is definitely not the same as what I know as “horse.”)
This is one of those rare cases where I almost feel like the second book is better than the first, not because the first was weak at all–it remains a five-star read for me–but because in Queen Demon we really get to expand upon the world that was built in Witch King. I feel that Witch King really drops you into the middle of things without much explanation, which can make the first third or so of the book feel like you’re just trying to figure out what’s going on, e.g. what is an expositor? What is an intention? This was absolutely not a problem for me, I love high fantasy that doesn’t condescend to me in terms of explaining the mechanics of the world, but it does mean your reading brain needs to do quite a bit of limbering up before you really can sink your teeth into the world.
But if you’ve read (and re-read) Witch King, then when you start on Queen Demon you’re already primed to understand the world, and that in turn means that you can dive right in to following the actual story, from the politics we see much more of to the interconnections between the past and present timelines unfolding in parallel to each other. And that, for me, makes for an extremely enjoyable reading experience, especially since I already know and love the characters I’m reading about.
As always, Martha Wells’ worldbuilding is incredible, her characters are complicated and layered, and her use of language is exquisite. Kaiisteron Prince of the Fourth House of the underearth I would die for u